Recent Press

March 2018

TrollBusters was featured in the International Association of Women in Radio and Television’s new safety handbook for women journalists. Ferrier describes tactics journalists can use online to counter abusive threats. A printed version of the handbook was distributed to attendees of the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in Manhattan.

Dr. Michelle Ferrier, second from left, says algorithms are not neutral. “Algorithms have baked-in biases that can have unintended consequences,” Ferrier said.

October 13, 2017

Newmark Foundation Grant to Enable Research by IWMF and TrollBusters on Online Harassment of Female Journalists in U.S.

WASHINGTON, DC/ATHENS, OHIO–The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) has just received a grant from the Craig Newmark Foundation to conduct research in the United States on online harassment of women journalists. Dr. Michelle Ferrier, founder of TrollBusters, will be the principal investigator on the project, while Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) of California will provide survey support.

The research will enable the community to better understand the breadth and depth of how online trolling impacts female journalists – abuse that is almost always violent or sexualized in nature when directed at women – and aimed at silencing and censoring them. A Demos think tank survey from 2014 of harassment on Twitter found that female journalists receive roughly three times as much abuse as their male counterparts. Meanwhile, the IWMF’s 2014 report “Violence and Harassment against Women in the News Media; A Global Picture,” revealed that two-thirds of those surveyed experienced acts of intimidation, threats and abuse, in person or online.

“The numbers are difficult to pin down, but this is one of the most pernicious problems facing women journalists today,” said Elisa Lees Muñoz, Executive Director of the IWMF. “We are regularly hearing anecdotes and testimonials of American women journalists experiencing a surge in online harassment. The data collected through this study will enable us to truly understand the size and scope of the problem, which is essential to mounting an effective response and supporting female journalists who live with this threat.” It is widely believed that many women do not speak up about online abuse due to fears of being ignored or that it will escalate the problem.

Ferrier has been conducting interviews with women journalists since the election to find the ways in which they build resilience following online harassment. An associate professor in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Ferrier was honored in 2017 with the South by Southwest (SXSW) Community Service Award for the just-in-time rescue work of Troll-Busters.com and its online protection awareness, support and educational materials.

Ferrier, who launched her social venture two years ago, says the project will help inform international strategies.

“We need research that illuminates the significant emotional and work stresses that online harassment places on journalists who are targets,” Ferrier said. “And that the effects on the individual and the free press have global consequences.”

The IWMF plans to release the research report in Summer 2018.

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International Women’s Media Foundation: Since 1990, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) has worked to unleash the potential of women journalists as champions of press freedom to transform the global news media. We seek to ensure that women journalists worldwide are fully supported, protected, recognized and rewarded for their vital contributions at all levels of the news media. As a result, consumers will increase their demand for news with a diversity of voices, stories and perspectives as a cornerstone of democracy and free expression.

Michelle Ferrier, PhD, the founder of TrollBusters was herself a target of hate mail and online harassment. The first African-American columnist for a Florida daily newspaper, she was forced to leave her job as a columnist and online community manager after receiving threats from white supremacists. She developed TrollBusters in 2015 to provide just-in-time services to women journalists with support from IWMF and the Knight Foundation.

December 15, 2016

TrollBusters Founder Dr. Michelle Ferrier received one of 10 of the 2017 SXSW Community Service Awards that reflect the heart and soul of the SXSW Interactive event in Austin, Tex. Like the co-founder of SXSW Interactive, Dewey Winburne, these 10 honorees are doing work to make a positive difference in their communities through technology.

TrollBusters Founder Dr. Michelle Ferrier speaks with Dorothy Winburne, widow of Dewey Winburne for whom the community service award is named.

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media [2016]: New Challenges to Freedom of Expression: Countering Online Abuse of Female Journalists, “Beyond anecdotal reports: Some hard data about the online abuse of women journalists,” by Elisa Lee Munoz, International Women’s Media Foundation, Vienna, Austria. http://www.osce.org/fom/220411?download=true

Video/Audio

OSCE #SOFJO ProjectTrollBusters founder Michelle Ferrier speaks as part of the Safety of Female Journalists Online project for The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. [February, 2018] WATCH

IAWRTTrollBusters founder Michelle Ferrier speaks on a panel for The International Association of Women in Radio & Television, “#MeTooOnline: Workshopping Solutions to Counter Cyber Violence Against Women.” [MARCH 2018] WATCH

Gender Links News ServiceSegment on TrollBusters and the #MeToo movement and why Dr. Michelle Ferrier, founder of TrollBusters, feels there’s a privilege to being able to speak out and there are many silenced stories that the #MeToo movement has left behind. [APRIL 2018] LISTEN